I meet some of my comrades in our barracks, carrying the laptop.
"Hey. Jim's arrival, when do you think it'll be?" Angelina asks.
"Beats me," I shrug. "He never even gave a location."
"True, hm. Cryos, I wonder what she's like."
"Hopefully not hanging off the edge like Travis's mom. That was rough," I wryly mutter. "It's funny, though. We were all convinced she was a man, and we were all made to assume she was… dead." I suddenly trail off.
"Whazzit?" Vernicia sits up on her bunk. "You remember something?"
"Joseph! He clued us into her existence, remember?"
"Um… before or after he died?"
"Just before, I think. He said something about his wife possibly being targeted," I recall. "And according to those files, only Joseph was allowed direct access to Cryos at any given time."
"No one ever saw his wife, no one ever saw Cryos. I get it now," Vernicia nods. "Actually, that gives me an idea." She grabs the laptop from me and opens it. "You… hm?"
"What?" I look at the screen. "What's this?"
"Some kinda website," she says. The title at the top reads Vidmeo, but the paused recording is titled Ideal and Real #22.
Verni clicks on it. The talking animal is wearing glasses, and it makes me laugh. Verni, however, is silent, looking mildly confused.
We play another video. In this one, a man in a dress suddenly dropkicks another man in a dress. Verni snickers, but I can't help but criticize the technique.
We look at each other, then decide to find a video that makes both of us laugh.
As I move to mark off our sixth co-humorous video, the harsh badlands sun blinds me for a second. It's morning?
I look over at the clock. It is morning! The entire night has passed!
"What the…?" I look back at the laptop. "What's up with this site? Does it only have videos on it?"
"Looks like it."
"What if they run out of stuff to watch?"
"Hmm… look here." Verni points at a statistics page. "Says here there's over a billion videos."
"What…? That's like twenty thousand years of bird pics," I mutter. "Who has time for all that?"
Vernicia closes the laptop. "I bet the guy who invented it is immortal. Then he could watch it all at his leisure."
I stand up, stretching my legs. "Ugh, sore. I'm gonna take a walk."
I walk through the safehouse, trying to get rid of the dull pain in my legs. Maybe I should kick a training dummy.
Despite being Gen 4's safe house, I can still find my way through it with relative ease. They really are built the same, huh.
I notice Lee sitting cross-legged in the med room, still as a statue. I move closer, now curious. Is she asleep? Or… maybe she's…
"You desire something?"
"Wargh!" I flinch back. "Sorry! I mean, uhm, don't mind me, Master Lee, I was just–"
"At ease." She levels her cool gaze at me.
"R-right." I relax a bit. "So I was wondering… you're teaching Hal and Jetta to be mages, yeah? Can you teach us aeronauts too?"
Lee cracks a light smile. "Funny girl."
I blink, caught off-guard. "Huh?"
"You may recall how I compared aeronauts to magic items," Lee states. "I meant that in more ways than just repairs."
"Um… but we're people too, right?" I don't quite get it.
"You've got what you need," she winks. "Trust the master on this."
"Um… okay." I exit the med room, twirling a ponytail.
I slowly walk down the corridor, lost in thought. As I pass another room, I glance through the door's window on a whim.
"Wh—?!?!" My voice catches in my throat.
Angelina is kissing Rurin. On the lips!
Warning! Forbidden act has been witnessed. Purging. Purge failure! Resetting. Reset failure! Activating fight-or-flight sequence. Activation failure!
I can't believe Angie of all people would… No! I remember that true crime magazine I saw once. It's always the quiet ones who are the freakiest!
Um, wait, is kissing freaky? Or is it just indecent? It has to be at least indecent. It was indecent in that one comic I read. And I remember Joseph saying once that fiction is often based in truth.
Angelina starts to look around, but by the time her gaze reaches the window, I'm long gone.
I manage a clean retreat to the mess hall, where Vernicia is happily munching on jerky and jam.
"Phew…" I sit down in front of her and grab some jerky off her plate.
"You look like you've seen a ghost," she remarks. "Wait, that doesn't really work for you anymore, does it? Anyway, what's up?"
"I'm no good with romance," I groan.
"Hoho?!" Verni stands up, now excited. "Leave it to me! Who's the lucky fella? Wait, let me guess – Diantha! Or wait, I've seen how the Guy looks at you sometimes. I mean, Marc. Gonna give him a chance?"
"Not me, dammit." I half-heartedly munch on the meat.
Vernicia raises an eyebrow. Then Angelina and Rurin walk in.
"A bit more varied, you would think," Angie is saying. "No dice. For better or worse."
"Hey guys," Verni calls. "Kit's acting weird, you've been warned."
"Hum?" They both look at me.
I stuff more jerky into my mouth. "Iddntwthygsmkgut."
Angelina furrows her brow, now even more confused.
"I can translate," Ru says. "She said she didn't watch us making… out? Kit, what?"
"Tch." Angie looks away.
"Er, Angie?"
"Nothing. A dream, it was maybe." Somehow I can tell she's lying. Does that mean Ru doesn't know?
"Maybe she saw something weird on Vidmeo," Vernicia shrugs, dipping her last jerky in the jam bowl.
"Oh hey, do you think Selphia knows we got attacked?" Rurin asks. "We never checked out, you know. Maybe she could have helped us."
"Maybe Shiny told her," I recall, trying to act nonchalant. "I recall they're good pals."
"Yeah, good point," Verni nods, "But then, we came here with the Diamond Eye because we were certain Master Lee could help us."
"Hal's thing?" I never saw it myself. "He can just use it to send us back, can't he? Like a return-to-sender type deal."
"He doesn't have it anymore," Verni tells me. "It vanished into thin air after it dropped us off. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it myself."
"Umm… well, maybe Master Lee has more," I suggest.
"Worth a shot." Vernicia heads down the hall by herself.
"Focus, Hal! Precision is key," Lee instructs. The bolt of watery energy shoots past the target and explodes against the training room's back wall – one of half a dozen similar craters.
"Gah," Hal grunts. "Rainburst was so easy."
"You have the basics, at least," Lee says, marking something on a list. "Accuracy can only be honed with practice."
"I've never been a good shot, though…"
"Skill issue," Jetta calls from behind.
"Says the gal whose icebolts dissolve after only a few meters? I don't wanna hear it," Hal retorts.
Vernicia opens the door. "Master Lee! A moment."
"Jetta, fifty focus reps. Hal, shoot down all the targets without recharging." Lee sharply turns to face her. "Now, then, Vernicia. What is it?"
"We had to leave in a hurry from Minoaoa Village, so could you spare another Diamond Eye for us to borrow? So we can go back," Verni explains. "There's still a few things we… need to…" she trails off as Lee starts laughing.
"Ahem! Sorry." Lee composes herself. "You should know Diamond Eyes are exceedingly rare. It is unknown how many exist, and the scope of their abilities is also unknown."
"Okay…" Vernicia narrows her eyes.
"You sense there must be a catch, yes? You'd be correct," Lee continues. "Once a Diamond Eye is used, it immediately warps to a different place in the galaxy."
"Galaxy?!"
Lee nods. "The one I gave to Hal took me two years to track down. It was also my only one. I'm glad you put it to good use."
Hal stops to look over at Lee. "Wait, if these things are basically instant miracle devices, then why did you give your only one to me?"
Lee rubs her chin, her expression inscrutable. "Hmm… perhaps I'll tell you if you master that spell."
"Dammit," he mutters, returning to his practice. "Just you watch."
The next morning, an icy wind howls over the badlands as the sun begins to rise. The early bird plucks the bug, and all that. Marc, Diantha and I are in the lobby, preparing to head out.
"We ready now? I'll boot up the…" Marc suddenly stops. "Tetrider," he mutters, staring at it.
"What?" I also look at his vehicle. "Something wrong?"
"The Tetrider," he says.
"What about it?" I keep looking at it. Maybe I missed something? I guess it's weird that it's parked in the lobby.
"That's the issue, Kit," Marc replies to my thought.
"Huh? It can fit through the door well enough, can't it?"
"Kit, dear. I'm afraid you'll need to use your brain for this one." Diantha taps the side of my head. "When we used the Diamond Eye to escape, where was the Tetrider?"
"I KNEW I wasn't crazy!" Marc slams his hands on the Tetrider's side. "I left you somewhere outside Minoaoa! What could this mean?"
Hal pokes his head in. "Oh, that? Super easy to explain. I was talking to Master Lee yesterday, and she was telling me about some of her students she'd taught during her career, like this one dude who graduated at the top of her class but went berserk about a month later. I figured it probably wasn't her fault, because I personally believe psychokinetics aren't entirely straight in the head. If their reputation is anything to go by—"
"Hal, I swear to [redacted]!"
"Hey, I'm going somewhere with this." Hal fully enters the lobby and continues: "After that, she talked about her second-best pupil who could summon stuff to her with only a snap of the fingers, and I was like, hey! We left the Tetrider at Minoaoa Village. And she was like, so you know where it is as well? This'll be easy. Then we came in here, and Master Lee did her thing. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but it worked like a charm, 'cause the Tetrider popped up right in front of us. Cool, huh?"
Marc slowly blinks. "Well… as long as it's here, I guess."
"Did you wanna come along, Hal?" I offer.
"Nah. Gotta master my thing before Jetta masters her thing," he replies, turning to leave. "See ya around."
In the end, all three of us ride in the Tetrider. For once I'm glad aeronauts are tiny, because the harsh badlands wind is relentless today. Or maybe I'm just getting soft? I don't really know.
As we start driving down the steep north face of the great ridge, I realize it's still cold in the non-badlands world. How long does a season even last?
"Three months or so," Marc says.
"What? Quit that," I mutter.
Soon we stop at Ridgeside Station. From here, we'll take the rail to Minoaoa Village and meet back up with Selphia. Shouldn't take too long, hopefully.
"I still think we could've flown," I say as we enter the station's main gates.
"While carrying Marc? No way." Diantha blows a raspberry. "Driving is the best way for all of us to stay low-key while also staying together."
"Huh? He's not that heavy, though," I reply. "Even with the armor, I'd say he's manageable at worst."
Dia looks away, not saying anything more. Now that I recall, she and Angie were also reluctant to carry Marc when he froze up at the inn…
"Ahem! You should also consider that they had scouts as far out as Sectary," Marc cuts in. "It's safe to assume Qinn Industries probably has eyes around here, too. And muscle. Even though the firemen aren't with us, we should still be wary of an attack."
"Hmmh…" I twirl a ponytail. "I mean, I get that those earthmovers are super strong, but they're also slow and probably dumber than me," I say. "If we're careful, I bet we can take 'em all."
"The same way Ru thought he could take 'em? It only takes one slip-up," Diantha reminds me.
"Aw, don't undersell yourself. We just need to tighten up our formation, cover our blind spots," I tell her. "That was our first tussle with 'em, you know. Next time we'll be prepared."
"Confidence," Dia nods. "I like that in a woman."
As we pass by a tea shop, I notice a familiar hulking figure sitting at one of its outside booths. I promptly grab Dia and Marc's arms and start pulling them with me.
"What now?" Marc looks alarmed.
"Jim Hanks. Right over there," I say.
"Then, the woman across from him," Diantha murmurs, then trails off as we stop in front of them.
Jim is looking as Jim as ever, except now he has deep bags under his eyes.
But the woman…
The woman sitting across from him is almost exactly how I imagined Marc would look if he was female. Even her hair curls the same way. Her eyes are grey, though, and her face is sallow-looking, despite her also having full lips. Her nose is different, too… thinking back, Marc definitely got his nose from Joseph.
Marc sits down across from her. "So, ah, Cryos," he stammers, "I-I mean, Mom."
"Wow." She reaches forward to poke Marc's face. "I haven't seen you since you were a toddler. You're so big now."
"I suppose a mother never forgets, eh?" Jim throws her a look.
Cryos sits back. "I suppose."
"So are the stories true?" I excitedly slide in next to her. "Were you some secret legendary biotool that not even top officers could know about?"
"Yes. I was secret." She rolls up her sleeves, revealing toned arms haphazardly covered in biometal plating. "I'm their first successful Fusion."
"So how'd they do it?" Marc asks. "I wasn't born with biometal on me, was I?"
"No. Only people with both psycho-aptitude and high resistance can survive the procedure," Cryos answers.
"Hm? Resistance…"
"Ahem," I cut him off. "So, psycho-aptitude. You scan minds too?"
"No. I can project my thoughts," Cryos states. Then words appear in front of her face: [Like so. They fade quickly, so I hope you can read well.]
Marc narrows his eyes. "I didn't hear you think that… but those were your thoughts, right?"
"Whoa. That's kind of cooler than his mind scan," I decide.
Cryos crosses her arms. "I'm flattered. Mind scan, though… that's a useful ability. Your great grandpa had it last."
"It runs in the family… fascinating." Dia is now sipping a chuchu. I would've mooched Jim's cup, but his drink is a spiked triple shot black cocoffee. Trauma aside, I suspect it might actually kill someone of my size.
"Yes. Twenty generations," Cryos states. "Because of my qualifications, I was put in the system at three years old."
"Apparently, whenever the previous subjects talked, the excessive vibrations destabilized the fusion and killed them," Jim explains, "but if they didn't talk, the scientists would go too far and kill them anyway."
Cryos nods. "My projections saved my life."
"What about Joseph? Where does he fit in?" I ask, engrossed.
"Yes. My husband." Cryos's gaze grows distant. "He was the only mage Atticus would allow with the scientists, thanks to his biokinesis."
Marc stiffens. "Huh?! Dad was…?!? But that's impossible!"
"Why? He cared about my well-being."
"M-m-mages don't really exist!" He's starting to sound like a broken record at this point. "Science is the key to everything!"
Cryos tilts her head. "I wouldn't have survived if Joseph wasn't a mage. He was a sweet man, Marc. Whenever I couldn't move, Joseph would give me some of his life energy. I would sometimes tell him not to, but he would tell me not to worry. He didn't want my only memories to be those of pain."
"Hum?" I start putting some pieces together. "Is that why he used a cane? I had a feeling he wasn't as old as he looked."
"This confirms a suspicion I've had for a while now," Diantha says. "The ones behind all this have been employing mages to aid with their 'research' since the beginning! Maybe none of these projects are as scientifically sound as we've been led to believe."
"Whatever problems they couldn't solve with science, they solved with magic instead," I confirm. "Checks out so far. That's probably what was in the blacked-out parts of those documents you decrypted." I look at Marc, who doesn't respond. He looks like he's getting a migraine.
"Sounds like a lead to me." Diantha points at Marc's mom. "So Cryos, what do you think? You remember anyone else magic-ish?"
"Please stop calling me Cryos. I'm Zoë Villi-Adams," she replies.
"Zoë, huh. Nice," I nod.
"As for your question, no," Zoë continues. "They always kept me sedated. I couldn't process anything beyond whether or not it hurt."
"Hmph… tracks," Dia sighs. "But at least we finally found you. This is a huge step forward for us."
"Yeah! Let's head back, you can meet the rest of our comrades," I excitedly tell her.
"The only issue is… there's now five of us, and the Tetrider only seats two regular-sized people," Diantha says.
I raise a hand. "Actually, Jim weighs like three people."
"Don't worry about us. We have our own ride," Jim replies. "Jacked straight from the place I pulled her from. Funny thing, it was clearly modeled after your Tetrider, but with a bigger frame. Atticus funded the production of a full fleet of these for the biotool companies' executives and top clients… if I remember correctly, they're called acrobuggies."
I recall the thing Travis and Kisha were riding. Is that what it was?
Marc slams back Jim's cup, and I look at him in alarm. "Hah! Just like them to call my creations impractical, then turn around and pull this crap on me. You know those I-bots I designed to subdue you guys? They called 'em novelties. Toys. Childish creations," he rants. "But you know what they DID like? The high-range compound audio-visual sensors I perfected! Ohh, yeah, they wasted no time copy-pasting MY hard work onto their lean, mean Deltas and pulling mad profits. I'm telling you, if there's any good idea I get, they'll be the ones making bank off of it!"
As Marc continues his angry tirade, Zoë's gaze grows distant again. "This brings back memories. Joseph would get the same way whenever we had drinks together," she muses. Her speech is curt, but soft and well-meaning. Like a retired soldier who still gets called in from time to time.
"I'm sure everyone secretly wants Atticus dead, but no one has the guts to kill him! I wish we knew what was really going on behind the scenes…" Marc sighs, dropping his head onto the booth's table.
"Wow. Truly impressive," I applaud. "Not even Hal can talk that much between breaths."
"Are you okay now?" Zoë touches his back.
"I guess, yeah," Marc mumbles, sitting up.
Something beeps on Jim's person. I've heard this before.
Sure enough, Jim smoothly slides out of the booth. "No rest for the wicked… can you guys take care of Zoë?"
"Who's your commissioner?" Diantha sounds curious.
"That's a secret. I'll let you guys use the acrobuggy as needed."
I promptly jump on his back. "Leaving us again? You've got some nerve!"
Jim plucks me off, holding me in the air like a kitten. "Believe it or not, I have a life outside of you guys," he tells me. "This meeting was more of a coincidence… hmm, a fated encounter. With Zoë on your team, my mission was completed early. And now I'm off to my next one."
"You aren't worried about getting burned out? You look like you haven't slept in days."
Jim sighs. "Ain't that the truth… regardless, I've still got some gas in the tank. Look after yourselves."
Jim drops me on the floor. I only spend a couple of seconds hopping to my feet, but he's already gone by then.
"Wow. You weren't kidding," Diantha says.